Moringa and Split Yellow Lentil Curry – Moong Dal with Shenga

This Moong Dal with Moringa recipe is very easy-to-make and is a healthy option for an everyday meal. Dal being a common dish in almost every Indian home, you’ll find varieties of it – from regular moong dal to masoor dal or chana dal or dal bhat and more. Among the varieties of moong dal, we love eating mom’s moong dal with tomatoes and even more, this Moringa Moong dal with rice or rotis.

You don’t see many Moringa (Drumstick) trees around now a days in Mumbai, but growing up we had one in the compound of our grandfather Papa Leslie’s house. Back then as kids we enjoyed climbing the tree, evading the caterpillars, and swordfighting with the shenga.

Shenga are the pods or the moringa trees that are thing and long like a rounded ruler, and are called shevgyache shenga in our local Marathi. Of course, we also call them drumsticks. We didn’t know the importance of the drumstick tree, but now we do. Moringa is a miracle tree or a superfood as they say; and it has a lot of health benefits, from the leaves to the bark to the drumsticks.

Adding a few drumsticks to your yellow lentil dal is quite a healthy food choice. You can make this dal in a pressure cooker or even a hot pot, so come with me and let’s see how to make this tasty Indian dish.

How to cook Moong Dal with Moringa

Rinse and soak the Yellow Moong Dal (split yellow lentils – which are not to be confused with split yellow grams/chana dala) in cold water for a few hours. Drain the water before you add it to the vessel later on.

Clean and cut the Moringa (drumsticks) into smaller pieces that are about 2 or 3 inch long just the way our mom’s doing here.

Then chop the carrots into 1-cm cubes and cut the red chillies into 0.5-cm pieces and set aside. Also keep the green peas ready.

Heat oil in a vessel, and add in the red chilies. Wait for a few minutes till you smell the nice pungent air before adding in the chopped carrots and stir fry this for about 5 minutes.

Now add in the yellow split lentils, moringa pieces, turmeric power and salt and allow this to cook for about 10 more minutes. You’ll get a nice earthy aroma from the turmeric powder (haldi), which is is an antioxidant-filled spice that lends the dish its yellow colour. Finally add the peas just 5 minutes before turning the stove off. And as easy as that your moong dal with moringa sticks is ready.

This split yellow lentil dal goes well with really anything – rice, pav, or chapati. You can also serve it with a side of fried chicken, cutlets, mango pickle, bombil pickle, or any fried fish.

Liked the recipe? Comment and let us know! Questions? Comment and mom or me will answer in a day or two.

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